--You and Ashraf freaked out about me talking to that guy. The one Ashraf said he was the one who made you like you are now. [Mahdi frowns intensely.] I guess you were both worried about me, but I don't liked being bossed around so impolitely. I know I'm probably stupid compared to both of you, but that doesn't mean I'm too stupid to breathe.

[...Probably.]

You both need better manners.

What happened with you? After that.

[Mahdi is being very serious, tense, but doesn't quite appear angry. He hadn't been able to face his own feelings of helplessness when he received word of Koltira's death, perhaps in a way he'd been in denial. Even now, the thought that he was hopeless to do anything burns his throat like bile, but he won't speak that shame to Koltira.

He just wants the truth.

He wants to understand. It hurts that he doesn't.]